More Favorite Quotes

My husband said he needs more space. So I locked him outside. Roseanne



If love is blind-marriage must be like having a stroke. Danny DeVito from the movie, War of the Roses



Never try to outsmart a woman, unless you are another woman. William Lyon Phelps



Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative. Morecai Siegal

Border Collies and Books

The last couple of days have been pretty sweet, doing errands, going to the new library, the Lucia M. Tryon Branch, now located on Langley Avenue, and dog training. The temps are perfect, overcast and warm, but not hot. At the library there were only a few people, mostly men, not sure why, out of work maybe. The new book section yielded many books that I have been anxious to read:


A Little Big Life, A Memoir of a Joyful Dog – Dean Koontz

The Power of Respect – Deborah Norville

Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who are Curing Cancer – Suzanne Somers

Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls (featured in Oprah magazine)

Multiple Bles8ings - Jon and Kate Gosselin

Hulk Hogan: My Life Outside the Ring

I have already finished the books by Hulk Hogan and Kate Gosselin. Both show a determined effort to look past all their troubles and believe in God’s continued wisdom and help.

Dog training today was nothing short of wonderful. I piled all the dog training paraphernalia into my Subaru and drove down to the Equestrian center to train. With Joanne Permowitz’ help, Levi and I are gradually mastering the Utility exercises. Levi is understanding the directed jumping exercise, a major breakthrough. Now for him to conquer the go-back. I put the target outside the ring barrier and he viewed that as an opportunity to dismantle the ring gate. He absolutely would not listen to my command to turn and sit. I may have to use a flexi. Thanks to judge Greg Feathers for his input on the glove turns I have a dog who fixates less on the gloves and more on the turn, until I give the direction to fetch a glove. Of course there is still the problem with Levi wanting to kill the glove, something we can learn aside from the Utility glove exercise. Signals are becoming fun for him. To see all these things finally coming together just about makes me want to cry for joy. Will it carry over to the ring, a place where his leader (me) is a bundle of nerves? Levi is so sensitive to my emotions. I must learn to be confident in the ring. We will eventually be a competitive team of two. Meanwhile we are having fun training together again and that has made all the difference to our time together.

Side Release Buckles on Training Collars

This is my improved version of a  Sprenger training collar.  I inserted a side release buckle.  No more fumbling with the prongs.  If you are interested in buying one contact me at clvangee2@aol.com.

Another Step Towards the UD goal

This weekend we came another step closer to obtaining Levi's UD. He earned the first leg of his Graduate Novice title. We have some things to work on, specifically and always, heeling. He did a nice drop, the longest distance we have done, both recalls over the broad jump and with the dumbell were great. However, he is not one to forget that the judge has his dumbell. When he saw the steward walk toward me with it in his hand his little eyes got big. She could have had a steaming hot steak in her hand. His ears pricked up and he rose up a bit on his front toes. "Oh, boy. Now we can have fun!" He seemed to say. I am still working on the handover of the dumbell to the judge after the recall. He is so preoccupied with it leaving my hands he can't think. I remember a trick Sylvia Bishop taught for this specific problem. You teach the dog that you too have a dumbell, hidden under your shirt. If the dog thinks there are two dumbells he isn't as heartbroken over giving one up. I will be working on this. So if you see me sporting a big lump under my shirt you'll know what is going on.
Levi should be entered in the Rally Advanced ring. He is under control and I think it is time. Maybe we need a weekend of just Rally for both dogs? $$ With Graduate Novice to finish, Novice B still available to us and his debut into the Open ring I'd better start playing the lottery again.

Under the Old Oak Tree

Although not officially summer the temps are warming up, making dog training a daily challenge. Fortunately an old oak tree spreads its ample limbs over a wide area in the back yard. The challenge each day is to confine my obedience ring within the shade the oak tree provides. I usually train about 11am in the morning. The dogs look forward to our training time because it usually involves treats and toys. In my mind I would think they’d say to themselves, “Oh, crap. It’s too hot to do that stuff. Go away!” Amazingly the competitive spirit between them helps me. If one is in the kennel, he is jealous of the other being trained. So when it is his turn he’s willing to fork over obedience exercises I request of him in exchange for a piece of the action. It has also become apparent that one dog watching another do a certain skill set helps the younger dog to learn. Kind of like, “Oh, so that’s what she wants!” To motivate me to train I sit down in the shade with some Front and Finish articles I’ve saved over the years. It always helps to have another perspective on problems that are universal in the sport. Usually within ten minutes I get excited to try something that has worked with a more experienced trainer.
Notes from a recent training session:
Levi-start with jumping which he loves, work more on fronts with chute and close work; “Get close”-with collar old fashioned way; doing great on “around” command, doing poorly on “about turn”. Wide-lazy, used food throw as well as Sylvia Bishops’ method. Stand much better, work on stand-sit-down stays. Work on broad jump, running over/past like the old days.
Mickey-doesn’t work well in heat, start over with retrieve, be more consistent with my training; amazing-he is doing distance signals with River.

Blue Tubular Peyote Necklace

I had made a green odd count tubular peyote necklace when I still lived in Oregon. I received a lot of nice comments but several people asked if I had one in blue to sell. So recently I made this one. Sure enough, someone asked if I had one in purple. Currently I have an order in with Fire Mountain Gems for some purple/violet beads and Szarovski cystals to make one in purple. Hmm. I guess I should make one in red too. Future tubular peyote necklaces I make need to have some more variation, maybe dangles off the side and bottom or a mix of strung beads and tubular peyote. Either way this is another easy project. I used size 8 beads and some large triangle beads that I had in my stash. As luck would have it I ran out of large beads and had to order more for the last 2". Oh, well.

After this project I found instructions in the magazine Step by Step Beading for a Russian Spiral necklace. Along with netting that is easy and fun to do and opens up a lot of possibilites for variations. A new friend is asking about bead crochet necklaces and bracelets. I have done them in the past but need to gain more confidence in finishing the ends. Should I use cones or weave the ends together? I also tried to teach myself the African helix stitch and decided it was something I should save for another day. It IS beautiful so that is on my list of things to learn along with tubular Herringbone.

Dogs and Jewelry

In between dog training I've had time to do more beading. My goal is to post the results of my work along with a description of the products used.

This isn't the greatest picture but it shows some variation from a pattern (Fanfare Earrings) I saw in an issue of the magazine Step By Step Beading. I used Nymo thread size D and next time would use a smaller size. The Delicas and size 8 beads were on hand as were the 4mm Szarovski crystals (color Lt Siam) that I purchased a long time ago at the Bead Fest in Portland, Oregon. It was a fun project even if the heavier thread made it a challenge to go back through some of the beads. I used the Brick Stitch to make this.